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PBBans Beginners Guide

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PBBans Beginners Guide

Welcome to PBBans

Welcome to PBBans, the home of the PBBans Hub. We now offer a multi-streaming option by using the PBBans Hub which features live banning, live banlist updates, live ban removals, log forwarding, server greetings, generic cvar scanning and much more.

PBBans works with game server administrators, players, and subject matter experts to pool their experience and information about cheaters. As cheats are caught through PunkBuster violations, screenshots or demos, they are added to our Master Ban Index (MBI). The MBI can then be filtered and downloaded to suit each registered game server admin.

PBBans is a not only a private online community for game server administrators -- we welcome anyone seeking help with PunkBuster enabled games. Our goal is to educate players and stop online cheaters in their tracks by the use of PunkBuster, the self-updating Anti-Cheat software system developed by Even Balance, Inc.

PBBans offers server admins the ability to stream a PunkBuster enabled server to multiple anti-cheat sites by using the revolutionary PBBans Hub, which features live banning, live banlist updates, live ban removals and much more.

PBBans works with game server administrators, players, and subject matter experts to pool their experience and information about cheaters. As cheats are caught through PunkBuster violations, screenshots or demos, they are added to our Master Ban Index (MBi). The MBi can then be filtered and downloaded to suit each registered game server admin.

PBBans currently offers a magnitude of services and features. Some of them include:

Live Banning Network
Cheaters are banned on all servers on our streaming network in real time when they are caught. This eliminates them from joining another server and discourages cheating.

Master Ban Index (MBi)
A ban list of all bans streamed to PBBans. All bans are made public as they are added and displayed on our website in real-time. Our downloadable banlists are not delayed and also updated in real-time.

Master Player Index (MPi)
Our MPi is a vast database of player information including GUID, Alias, IPs, and more.

Master Stream Index (MSi)
Our MSi displays stream stats of all servers that use our services. Also we have the option to find a server near you based on GeoIP data along with a list of streaming servers.

PunkBuster Screenshots and Demos Submissions
We give server admins the option to submit PunkBuster Screenshots and Demos of suspected cheaters for ban consideration. If deemed to be cheat related they are added to the MBi.

Custom Signatures
We offer server admins the option to create custom signature images with full control of text locations, large selection of backgrounds and more (Fully customizable). We also offer server based signatures based on a number of selectable templates.

RSS and XML Feeds
We offer server admins and other users a large variety of RSS and XML feeds. Some of which include ban lists (global, game based and team based), team account data, extended server data and more.

Community of Gamers
PBBans is a growing community of fellow admins and gamers who are willing to help each other in the goal of keeping games cheat free as possible.

PBBans Hub Features

The PBBans Hub has been in operation since July 2006. It uses the PunkBuster tool PBUCON to connect to servers which allows for many advanced features compared to the PB Repository method that was introduced in 2004.

All data is parsed in real time and bans are added as they are received. Ban commands are sent to all streaming servers (With the correct flag enabled) within seconds of making a ban. This makes the price for cheating much higher by keeping cheaters off other servers when they get caught.

The PBBans Hub itself has many features to aid server admins with an easy to use interface referred to as flags. Flags offer admins the ability to enable/disable many features.

Generic CVAR Scan (GCS)
This allows scanning of cheats that use custom CVAR prefixes in supported games. PunkBuster can only scan for exact CVAR matches however many cheats use random prefixes to avoid these detections. This feature is unique to PBBans.

Generic BIND Scan (GBS)
PunkBuster itself cannot kick a player for admin defined key bindings however cheaters use key binds to toggle features of cheats. Our GBS system allows cheat CVARs in bindings to be detected in supported games. This feature is unique to PBBans.

Cheat File Match (CFM)
Some cheats replace stock game files in order to enable cheating. Using the PB MD5 Tool we can scan a stock file and if they match to a known cheat file the player will be banned. This feature is unique to PBBans.

IP Restrictions
The IP Restriction feature when enabled searches the MBi (Master Ban Index) for a player’s ip when they join a server. If a match is found based on the admin defined parameters (Exact match or Subnets), the user is kicked from the server. The time can be set from 10 minutes to 7 days of the player receiving a ban. This is very effective for free games such as Enemy Territory, Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play 4 Free.

Ban Enforcement
When enabled, the PBBans Hub will check GUIDs of connecting players against the MBi. If a match is found, it issues a ban command. If your co-admin empties your banlist, a caught cheater will not be able to join the server. This may also help to reduce lag on your server. Also if the Ban Announcements flag is enabled a message will be sent to your server stating the user was kicked for a prior ban.

External Ban Lists
Since PBBans imports banlists from various anti-cheat communities; we offer the option to check supported banlists for banned cheaters. Level 1 - Connecting players are checked against the EBL Level 1 AC Sites. If a match is found, a kick command is issued. Level 2 - Connecting players are checked against the EBL Level 2 AC Sites. If a match is found, a kick and ban command are issued. A list of anti-cheat communities included in the EBL can be found at the bottom of the MBi page.

Ban Announcements
When enabled, a ban message will be sent to your server when a player is banned from any server on our streaming network.

Personal Greetings
When enabled, a custom message will be sent to a server (With the correct flag enabled) when you join. This is based on your PB GUID.

Standard Join Greeting
When enabled, a single custom message will be sent to your server when a player joins.

Log Forwarding
We offer the option to forward PB logs to other supported anti-cheat communities for supported games.

The PBBans Hub is ideal for streaming public servers and is quite easy to set up, even for inexperienced server admins. You can use our Automated Streaming Setup java applet, FTP, RCON, GamePanels (Such as TCAdmin and ClanForge) and various game specific admin tools (ex BF2CC, ProCon, HLSW) to setup your server.